WOMAN AT THE WELL!

READ JOHN 4:1-30

1-6) SETTING: Jesus, wearied from His travels, sits down to rest. The sixth hour means around noon and the disciples had apparently left Him to go into the village for food. Jesus is sitting beside a well built many years before by Jacob and the woman enters.
7-15) LIVING WATER: Jesus gave the woman an option. Take the water from the well that only satisfies for a time or the water that He has to offer that is for all eternity.
God is often referenced as a life giving water that satisfies forever:
Old Testament: Ps. 36:8-9; 42:1-2 Rivers of delight; thirst for God.
Isaiah 55:1 free
Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13, fountain of living water, instead of a cracked
cistern that holds no water or a dry and dusty grave.
New Testament: John 7:37 come to Jesus and be satisfied
Rev. 7:17 water of life
Rev. 21:6 water of life without cost
Rev. 22:1 river of the water of life coming from the throne of God
and of the Lamb.
16-19) PROPHET: This woman realized that Jesus had supernatural powers since He had knowledge of her past and her present life. Jesus was a Jewish stranger and could not have had the access to this information by normal means.
20-24) WORSHIP: The woman was worried that Jesus was out of His place. He should have been in Jerusalem if He was a prophet. Jesus directed her to believe Him, believe His words!
1) There is coming an hour when the Temple will be no longer needed for worship. The worship of the Father will not need a localized place, a time when you will be able to worship wherever you are.
2) True worshipers are those who worship the Father in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit and in truth is to worship according to fact and according to His Divine Nature as opposite to what is imperfect, defective, frail and uncertain. The Old Testament sacrificial system was good, but temporary, imperfect and defective. It could not save forever, sins had to be atoned for year after year. BUT, Jesus said, there will come a time when true worshipers (THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH) will worship the Father in spirit and in truth and the Father seeks to be His worshipers. Did you see that last part of v.23? Our Father longs to be worshiped by you and it will be without defect, imperfections, or uncertainty!
25-26) MESSIAH: There had developed over the years, with the study of scripture, an expactation of the an anointed one, a specific individual. (It is believed that this readlly developed over the intertestamental period.) This woman understood that when this Messiah came He would explain all things to them. Jesus says, "I who speak to you am He!" She gets excited!
27-30) A FLAMING EVANGELIST: The disciples must have seen something unusual going on, more than Jesus speaking to a Samaritan Woman, but something miraculous. Did you notice that they were speechless? This woman went out and shared with all the people of the city and they were so intrigued that they went to see Him for themselves.
FATHER, MAY WE THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON REMEMBER THE EXCITEMENT WE HAD WHEN WE FIRST MEET JESUS AND REALIZED THAT HE WAS OUR SAVIOR! AMEN